


Astroboy of the Stars

by BluePlanetTrash



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Android Lance, Angst, Gen, Langst, Multi, Robot Lance, Self-Acceptance, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Love, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-04-20 01:03:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14249706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluePlanetTrash/pseuds/BluePlanetTrash
Summary: So What about Lance as a robot, an Android that’s somehow been able to have human emotions and an actual soul, maybe bc of quintessence or smth. Like what if the galra made him and he somehow ends up with the team and they find out about him. Idk it’s up to you really.





	1. Chapter 1

Since he was a little kid, some things just didn’t connect at some points. He knew that he belonged in his family, he was in all the family pictures since he was a little kid, he was always treated as family by everyone that he lived with, and his parents were protective like he always remembered them being.

But sometimes, he just felt like things weren’t right.

He thought that it started after he and his family had gotten in a car accident; because he was feeling sick that day, he got in the front seat and his mom had sat in the back seat with the rest of his siblings. All he remembered from the incident was seeing a car’s headlights heading straight towards him.

When he looked up pictures of the crash after waking up later and saw that the entire front passenger side was caved in.

He was lucky to be alive. Lucky, that the only lasting damage was a coma.

After waking he found that his family would sometimes act differently around him. Shoot him strange looks when they thought he wasn’t looking. He never asked them about it, it wasn’t much of his business but he always felt like his siblings would spend more time without him than ever before.

It was the opposite for their parents though, it seemed like they were always hovering around him. They were always asking how he was feeling, if anything was off with his body after the crash but he always said no, understandably to their relief.

Being in a family of programmers, engineers, and many other extremely intelligent people, he thought that it was expected from him to shoot for the stars; quite literally in his case. They had always been supportive of his dreams, going so far as to tutor him when he had trouble, help him with his applications, and go through their connections to give him a better chance at being accepted. But suddenly, when he gotten his acceptance letter and joyfully shared the news with his family, they decided that they didn’t want him to go.

They were adamant that he wouldn’t be going to the Garrison. He wouldn’t be following his dreams anymore.

He cried and begged, pleading for any sort of explanation. Why did they not want him to be happy anymore? Why didn’t they want him to see the stars?

In the end, he snuck out to the last bus to the Garrison with only a single duffle bag filled with memories from his family. He couldn’t make it to the building before he was calling his mamá and apologizing for leaving. She screamed at him, demanding that he come back home but he could only tell her that he can’t give up on his dreams, and he wasn’t going to be going home until they could accept that.

It turns out that he never got to see if they accepted his decision or not.

He didn’t know why his family had started acting strangely around him but he didn’t often question it either. The crash was traumatizing for all of them, even if he didn’t exactly remember it.

* * *

Everything changed when they were battling the Galra, as most of their life-changing moments did. Everything had to happen with dramatic flare these days.

Being captured was high on the list of undesirable things to happen to the team. Especially when they were all together like this. They had taken Hunk and Lance first, taking the opportunity to grab Pidge while she was trying to figure out the centre’s computers. It was harder to capture Shiro and Keith but soon enough they were kneeling beside their teammates as well.

“So you are the paladins of Voltron? I have to say, I’m not very impressed,” the Galra commander smirked, his eyes drifting across their angry faces.

“Don’t underestimate us!” Keith growled, struggling against the soldier holding him. The commander let out a resounding laugh before striding forward and grabbing Lance by his hair and pulling him away from the line, to the loud disapproval of the rest of the team. He dragged him a few feet away and stood between the two groups.

“I’m giving you one chance paladins, surrender Voltron to me or I will shoot the Blue Paladin,” he threatened, pointing his gun towards Lance’s head.

“Don’t do it, guys!” Lance yelled panicked, wide eyes looking at his friends.

“Well,” the commander pushed.

“We won’t,” Shiro said sternly, trying subtly to loosen the soldier’s hold on his arms. The commander looked at him with narrowed eyes for a moment before shrugging and turning towards Lance.

“Alright,” he said calmly, his finger squeezing the trigger.

Without a sound, the laser left the muzzle of the gun, hitting Lance in the head. He slumped to the ground with an echoing thud. There wasn’t a single sound for a few moments until a horrified scream erupted from Pidge’s mouth.

They sobbed, screamed, and begged violently struggling against their guards trying to get to Lance’s side.

“Take them to the ship, we’ll see how the princess of Altea will take the news of her team’s capture and unfortunate loss,” he laughed, the soldiers nodded wrenching the distraught paladins to their feet and started dragging them towards the looming Galra warship.

“NO! LET US GO! LANCE! LAAAAANCE!” Hunk screamed, he strained towards him, only turning back in the right direction when the soldier hit him in the back of the head. Even as his vision went blurry from the hit, he looked back and his eyes widened in shock.

He was pushing himself up.

He went to shout his name with a smile but stopped when he finally got to his feet.

Half of his face was gone. Instead of the gore and blood that he expected, all he could see was gleaming metal and sparking wires.

“Lance?” He whispered, in a blink, he was behind the commander and with a single punch, he was throwing his hand straight through his back and out his chest. With a final roar from the Galra, he toppled to the ground motionless.

The rest of the soldiers’ hands dropped away from the paladins and they stared at Lance in shock. His hand slid out of the Galra’s body without a struggle. Slowly his head turned to look at the rest of the soldiers.

“ ** _Survival mode has been activated, do not engage,”_** his voice was distorted and emotionless, though it still clearly sounded like Lance. The metal was still sparking, and the exposed eyeball was eerily illuminating the intact part of his face. His other eye matched and, was opened wide, the normal dark blue was glowing a bright blue.

The soldiers didn’t heed his warning and one of them charged at him, gun drawn and aiming. He shot off a couple of rounds, but it didn’t phase him and instead, he stomped towards him and grabbed his throat. The soldier started struggling in pain as he started squeezing, his eye didn’t move an inch until the soldier went limp in his grasp.

He only looked away when another soldier charged at him and without warning, sliced his arm clean off letting the soldier drop to the ground unmoving. He backed away in horror when Lance only turned towards him, the new stump sparking at the same beat as his face.

It was like the soldiers were just tiny germs in his path, with only a few quick punches they were on the ground, either unconscious or dead. He looked over at the team who was still reeling in shock.

 ** _“No enemies detected,”_**  he said before he fell to the ground, back hitting the dirt with a thud.

 **“ _Excessive damage to external and internal assets, seek immediate repairs,”_** he droned on, laying on his back looking up at the stars.

After Shiro was able to snap through his restraints, he went to each of them and deactivated their bindings. Together, they cautiously approached their fallen teammate.

Kneeling at his side, they carefully looked over his body and tried to figure out a way to carry him back to the Castle in his shape. He didn’t turn his head to look at them, instead, they stayed glued looking up at the night sky, filled with stars from another galaxy.

“What are you, Lance?” Pidge whispered, eyes searching his figure for any clue. At the whisper, his body seemed to shake and for the first time, the glow dimmed in his eyes, returning to the ocean blue they remembered.

“I don’t know,” was the teary reply. They went to say more but again his entire body locked up and his eyes returned to their glowing state.

 ** _“Repairs required, shutting down,”_** he announced before his eyes shut and his body went limp. They cast frantic looks at each other before Shiro was picking him up and they started sprinting for the Castle. As they passed the bodies of the Galra, Pidge scooped up Lance’s disembodied arm and sprinted after them.

* * *

When Lance woke up, he wasn’t exactly sure where he was or what had happened.

“Lance?” He looked over and saw Hunk standing beside his bed looking at him with concern.

“Hey, buddy!” He said cheerfully, giving him a wide smile.

“Um, do you remember what happened?” He asked nervously, wringing his hands together.

“Not really? I mean I know that we went on a mission and stuff but after that, it’s pretty blurry,” he admitted, looking around the room to see the rest of the team gathered around his bed. “Why? Did something happen?”

“Yeah, something happened,” he replied. Lane waited for him to continue but it seemed like he was having trouble getting it out. Instead, he turned to Pidge who was sitting beside Hunk on her laptop.

“Pidge?”

Her fingers stopped tapping and she glanced at him nervously. His eyes flicked between her and Hunk before straying over to Shiro and Keith who were equally as silent.

“What happened? Is there something wrong with me?” He asked frantically.

“The short answer to both of those questions is that you’re an android,” Pidge said carefully, moving her body to face Lance completely. The spoon fell from his hand, clanking off the tray and landing on the floor beside the bed. His eyes were wide in shock before he burst out into laughter, clapping his hand on his leg.

“That’s a good one Pidge, you almost had me,” he chuckled, wiping a fake tear from under his eye. He glanced around but no one else was laughing, instead, they were looking down at the ground. “Pidge?”

“I know that’s a joke that I would make but it’s not Lance,” she insisted with a frown. His eyes darted from her to the rest of the group, quietly begging for one of them to crack a smile, but none of them did.

“But, robotics aren’t this far advanced, it would be in the news, it would be everywhere on Earth,” he argued, gesturing wildly with his hands. “Unless…I’m not from Earth?” he asked with a wince but Pidge only shook her head at him.

“Your programming is all in English and Spanish, you were made on Earth and we think we know why nobody knew about such an advanced robot,” she said, moving to her computer set up. He ignored the programming part and tried to focus on the information she was giving to him.

“Your creators; Rosa and Cortez McClain,”

His stomach dropped.

“Everything is in your main database; their research journals, their processes, everything that was needed to keep you running, they even included where you live,”

“Mom and dad?” He whispered weakly. “This can’t be true Pidge, it can’t! I remember being a little kid, I remember growing up!” He was tearing up in a panic, grasping at straws that were quickly being pulled away.

“In their journals, they talked about a fatal incident,” Pidge tried, looking at her screen quickly.

“The car accident,” he clarified without missing a beat. It was always stuck in the back of his mind like a looming shadow.

“I shouldn’t have survived it, I-I didn’t survive it. Lance didn’t survive it,” he corrected himself. His hands clenched at his sides, shaking slightly.

“Lance,” Hunk tried, moving forward to put a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t call me that,” he said weakly, brushing away the gentle touch.

“What?”

“I SAID DON’T CALL ME THAT! I’M NOT LANCE! I’VE NEVER BEEN LANCE!” He cried, eyes wide and filled with tears as he yelled at Hunk. With a gasping breath, he burst into sobs and hunched over, hiding his face in his hands. Hunk’s hand went to his back, gently rubbing up and down. As much as he wanted to wallow in his newfound misery, he was calming under the motions.

“What do you mean you’ve never been Lance?” Shiro asked calmly, coming to his other side and laying a hand on Lance’s shoulder. He gasped in an uneven breath, and tears rolled down his cheeks.

“The real Lance died in a car accident, I’m just someone-something that looks like him and has his memories,” he explained carefully. “I-I just feel like such an imposter,” he burst out with another sob. “This wasn’t the life that I was supposed to live, this is the life that Lance was supposed to live and I’m here instead,”

 **“** We’ve never met the other Lance, we didn’t get to know him,” Keith said, finally stepping forward to stand beside Shiro. “We’re your friends, not his,”

“But if he was still alive, you probably would have been his friends,” he argued.

“But that’s not what happened! It’s unfortunate what happened, but this is the outcome and you’re our family Lance, we care about  _you,_ ” Hunk broke in, startling Lance. He watched him with wide eyes.

“Family…” he trailed off suddenly in thought. Emotions raced across his face before settling on devastation.

“Lance, it’s pretty clear that your family loves you if they were willing to go this far to keep you with them,” Pidge reminded him, before patting him on the arm.

“You don’t understand,” he stated mournfully, turning to look at her with new tears streaked down his cheek. “I was made to be a replacement, what if I get back and they’ve just made another one of me?”

They sucked in a quick breath at the question. They were noticeably hesitant to answer if they had already replaced Lance once, what was stopping them from doing it again?

“Then fuck them,” Keith finally said. Their heads snapped over to look at him with shocked faces.

“Keith?”

“Seriously, fuck them. They shouldn’t doubt that you’re alive; when Shiro went missing, I never gave up hope that he was alive. The same with Pidge, and now she has proof that Matt is alive,” he said gesturing first at Shiro, then a beaming Pidge.

“Sure, the Garrison can lie but what acceptable thing can they come up with? ‘Three teens go missing during a lockdown?’ My dad is gullible but even he would know that something is up,” Hunk said with a smile, which Lance tentatively returned.

“I’m apologizing in advance for the shit that I’m going to go through in the next little bit,” he said quietly, a frown sliding across his face again. They huffed good-naturedly before wrapping him in a group hug.

“Don’t worry Lance, you’re only human,” Shiro soothed. Immediately, his mood plummeted again and he sagged a bit in their arms.

“But am I?” he asked quietly. The arms tightened around him.

“Of course you are, it doesn’t matter what you’re made up of,” Pidge said, squeezing him as much as she could. “You laugh,”

No matter where they were, no matter what was happening, Lance could always make light of the situation. When she felt down, a mischievous smile in her direction had her perking up, waiting for what Lance was going to do. Maybe he’d throw in a joke, or pull off a prank, most of the time he would stand there laughing at himself if the joke fell flat. She could see that sometimes, he would joke more for their sake.

“You cry,” Hunk added.

Days and nights spent in the kitchen, with Lance sobbing over a mug of watery space cocoa. Arms squeezing around his body trying to take as much comfort as Hunk could bear to give. When it came to Lance, he could take it all if he wanted. The nights in the kitchen came more and more often the longer they cruised through space, the possibility of returning home growing lower as the days passed. He could only let out his emotions at this time of night when no one else was around and only trusted his best friend to stick it out with him.

“You get scared,” Keith said softly.

Lance wanted to be brave and he pulled it off well, but if you looked close enough, you could always see his hands shaking before every mission. You could see the hesitance in his eyes during a mission planning. He would look off to the side to avoid eye contact during practices when he was facing off with Keith, Shiro, or Allura. They were all scared and they knew they were all scared, but Lance was a lot better at hiding it.

“You care, Lance,” Shiro finished, brushing his fingers through Lance’s hair.

Every planet, every inhabitant got Lance’s full respect. When he was there to save somebody, he was in 100%. It didn’t matter if they were rude to him during a meeting, if they were in trouble, he would lay his life on the line for them. He tried to hide what hurt him to keep the team happy, he did whatever he could to present his best self so they didn’t have to worry.

“You’re you,”

“Thank you,” he whimpered, leaning into the hugs a little bit more. A wobbling smile was on his face and happy tears were rolling down his face.

“You don’t have to thank us for this Lance, we’re always going to be here for you no matter what you think of yourself,” Hunk said with a grateful smile.

Lance just let himself be for a few minutes. Just let himself feel the warmth radiating off of his family.

“You know,” Hunk suddenly sighed. “I love how you haven’t noticed that you’re missing an arm,”

“WHAT!” He yelped, flinging everyone off of him to look down at his arms. One was the familiar brown he had always been used to while the other was a sleek white and black metal. When he flexed his fingers, the joints lit up with a blue light. He looked up at Hunk with wide eyes.

“I don’t know how much of the fight you actually remember but we were able to transfer some of the “skin” on your arm to fix your face. Turns out that Alteans do not take cosmetic surgery lightly, so it’s nice and even too!” Hunk said, holding up a mirror for Lance to look in. Apparently, he was right because he saw the exact same face he always had. ****

“Your arm was completely useless though, so we made you a new one,” Pidge preened, scooting up to run her fingers up and down the arm.

“Okay, I guess that’s kind of cool,” he admitted, bringing it up to examine it more closely.

“Great, now would you like the bad news or good news first?” Hunk asked cheerfully despite what he said. Lance looked at him with a deadpanned expression before he let out a heavy sigh.

“Well, it can’t be any worse than any of the other news today, bad first,” he chose, looking back down to the arm.

“Okay, well, we aren’t exactly sure how Altean tech will work with yours, so we’re going to have to monitor you for a while,” Pidge said with a bit of a shrug. “We haven’t fully activated it so there won’t be much damage if there is a problem,”

“Okay, that doesn’t sound too bad, the good news?” He asked looking up at Hunk who was fully smiling.

“Shiro,” he said instead. Lance blinked in confusion looking over at their leader instead.

“We’re twining!” He exclaimed, batting at Lance’s new hand with his own metal one.

“Oh my god, that literally just made my day,” he laughed, as he leaned over to Shiro and gave him a one-armed hug.


	2. Chapter 2

Despite the fact that he was scared that they replaced him, he was still excited to see them again. He knew that the Earth was in danger but if he could see his family again, maybe it wouldn’t seem so dire. As they crept through the ruined city they used to know, he thought maybe he’d underestimated the ruin that Sendak caused but he could see he was wrong. **  
**

He had so many memories of the ruined city; sneaking out with Hunk, going and getting garlic knots (they weren’t as good as the ones at home), and getting a tour of the city when he first arrived at the Garrison. Now it was completely in tatters and there wasn’t a single sign of life so far. Without warning, they were under attack and they fought against the drones that flew around them. Lance’s arm whirled to life and he struck out, hitting some of the closer ones down to the ground. He was just barely able to dodge out of the way as Garrison vehicles crashed through the abandoned cars and two soldiers jumped out, aiding them in their fight.

“Let’s go!” One of them yelled, Lance recognized him as James Griffin; one of the cadets he trained with. He tried to keep track of the radioed conversation between the two cars but his mind constantly went back to his family. He hoped with all of his heart that they’d be there waiting for him. It seemed like forever before the vehicles came to a stop and they were able to get out. Pidge was immediately out and hugging her mom and dad, he watched for a few seconds before looking around at the others that were waiting.

His heart immediately started beating out of his chest.

“Veronica!” Lance cried happily jumping out of the buggy and running towards her, his arms stretched wide and tears streaming down his face. He crashed into her and wrapped his arms tightly around her in a long overdue hug. He’s waited for that moment for years and it was finally coming true but… she wasn’t hugging back. He backed up and looked up at her face.

She was definitely older than the last time he saw her but that was to be expected. They’d been gone far longer than they thought, five or six years but it wasn’t just her physical age that got him, it was like her soul got older.

“Veronica?” He said with concern. She shook her head like she was shaking herself out of a trance and gave him a small smile.

“Sorry. It’s really good to see you, Lance,” she said quickly pulling him into another hug. As he clutched at the back of her uniform, he looked around for any sign of the rest of his family but he couldn’t see anyone.

“Veronica, where is everyone?” Lance asked quietly, pulling back slightly. He could hear her swallow nervously before she answered.

“They’re fine, they’re with all the other survivors,” she stated before pulling away completely and marching back into the compound.

It hurt. His big sister completely ignored his existence after being missing in space for five years. It wasn’t the last time either, every time he tried to talk to her between missions, she made sure to make it as short as possible. He wanted to ask her about it but at the same time, maybe she was just busy with everything happening on base? They were about to go to war after all and he didn’t want to make her feel bad if she wasn’t meaning to ignore him.

But if she was doing it on purpose, he still didn’t want to know. It was one thing to think that maybe his family didn’t want to see him but if Veronica didn’t want to be around him either, he didn’t think he could take it.

He wanted to be brave and take the truth like the strong person he knew he was but at the back of his mind, he was terrified. He still had the emotions of a human, the instincts. The fear. All that was keeping him on Earth was his team and his family, now it was starting to look like both were the same group of people.

It was after Veronica ignored his request for help training that he decided he needed to put to end whatever her issue with him was. Even if he discovered something he didn’t like, he was gonna try and take it like a man and power through.

* * *

“Veronica, could I talk to you for a little bit?” He asked before she could leave the room. She looked off to the side, her discomfort was obvious.

“Uh, I don’t know Lance, I have a lot of work I need to do,” she stated, moving around him but he reached out and grabbed her wrist and looked at her pleadingly, eyes shiny with tears.

“Veronica, please! Just five minutes! No! Two minutes! Please!” His voice cracked, with unshed tears and his hand trembled around her wrist. She looked at him with wide eyes before she bit her lip and nodded. Immediately Lance’s face lit up a bit and he followed her back to her quarters.

“What did you want to talk about?” She asked, sitting at her desk and turning her back on him. Just like she had been doing since he’s gotten home. He shuffled his feet slightly and bit his lip.

“Veronica, do you hate me?” He asked quietly, clutching his hands in front of himself. Veronica whirled around so quickly, he thought she was gonna smack him.

“How could you say that?” She spoke lowly, a slight glare on her face. Lance gulped and twined his fingers together tighter as he tried to keep his nerve.

“You’ve been ignoring me since I got back,” he replied, looking down at the floor. He flinched at Veronica’s annoyed sigh.

“Well, I’m sorry that I’m too busy helping with the war to talk to you at every moment of the day,”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that it’s been so long and I was just excited to see you. I-I’m so-sorry, I’ll just g-go,” Lance stuttered, wiping his arm across his face, as tears started dripping from his eyes.

“Oh, don’t be a baby Lance,” Veronica teased, turning back to her desk with a slight smile.

“Please don’t Veronica,” Lance sniffed, stopping at the door and looking back at her.

“What? You were just complaining that I wasn’t paying enough attention to you; now you want me to stop? Make up your mind Leandro,” she huffed, marking something on her paper. Lance furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Leandro? I haven’t gone by that in years,” he saw her stiffen in her seat and slowly look over her shoulder at him. Her eyes were wide and burrowing straight into his. He knew exactly what she was thinking.

“I’ve been replaced haven’t I?” He whispered. If possible her eyes got even wider at the question. He forgot that she wouldn’t know that he found out the truth about his body.

“Replaced? What are you talking about?” She was a good actor, he’d give her that but he already knew.

“I know what I am Veronica,” he said, sliding the sleeve of his uniform down to show her the mechanical arm.

“You were dead. What did you expect us to do?” She asked after a brief period of silence. Lance flinched before looking at his arm, suddenly unsure of himself again.

“We lost you for the second time. Mama and Papa couldn’t take it; the silence. It was overwhelming at home without your presence,” Lance looked at her somewhat fearfully. He had no idea what she was getting at but he didn’t think it was anything good.

“So yes, we replaced you,”

His world shattered. He didn’t let Veronica finish before he was racing out the door and down the hallway. His chest was tight and his eyes were burning. He didn’t think as he ran towards the Atlas, where he knew Shiro would be.

“Lance?” He barely got out before Lance was in his arms, bawling his heart out.

“Lance, buddy, what’s happening?” Shiro asked with concern, protectively cupping the back of Lance’s head. He stumbled his way through the story, desperately clinging to Shiro’s jacket the entire time. With every sentence that left, Shiro’s face grew darker and darker.

“They don’t deserve you, Lance, we already told you that we’ll be here for you no matter what,” Shiro reassured him after he broke down in sobs again. Lance nodded slightly against Shiro’s chest and let himself get carried to their small lounge in the Atlas. Shiro let Lance lay against him as he tried to compose himself.

“I want to see mama and papa,” he rasped after a few minutes. Shiro looked down at him in shock and saw that he was vacantly staring at the wall in front of them. “but I know they don’t want to see me,”

A shock of sympathy shot down Shiro’s spine and he quickly tried to reassure him that maybe they still wanted to see him but Lance only shook his head.

“If they did, they’d be here.”

* * *

He tried to not let the news distract him from why he was back on Earth and he threw his whole self into the war effort. It was hard to ignore Veronica but the rest of the team protected him from her most of the time. He expected the hostility from her but tried to brush it off.

Being in the hospital right after the battle though, was something he never expected. You know, being an android and all. But, after realizing why his bionic arm was in a sling he understood. The only people that knew how to fix him were his parents or Hunk and Pidge, which means that Hunk and Pidge were pretty banged up at the moment and couldn’t fix him. And his parents… well, they probably wanted him to be broken.

He looked over when he heard the hospital door creak open slightly. He tried to ignore the pounding of his heart as he thought that maybe his family was coming to visit him or even less likely fix him. In a sense, his visitor was almost his family.

“Hi,” Leandro greeted quietly. Lance’s eyes widened in surprise for a second at the boy that entered his room. The similarities were uncanny, it was jarring how alike they looked. The only difference was the slight age difference apparent between them. Lance still looked eighteen, only a year and a half older than when they left Earth. But, Leandro looked to be around twenty two.

“So you found out huh?” Lance asked. Leandro let out a small laugh and gripped his hair tightly in his hand.

“Well, they could only keep me away from the news of Voltron and the paladins for so long, especially when your faces are plastered all over the world now,”

“And how do you feel about it?” Lance asked bluntly. Leandro was visibly surprised but thought carefully about his answer.

“It explains a few things,” he replied, rubbing his shoulder self consciously.

“Maybe, but that’s not what I asked. How do you feel?” Lance asked again. Leandro gulped and looked down at the floor.

“I’m sad and scared I guess. I just found out that I’m a replacement for someone else, and I don’t know if or when I’ll be replaced,”

“Well, we have that in common,” Lance chuckled dryly, picking at his blanket.

“Right…”

Leandro shuffled awkwardly in place, glancing around the room; anywhere besides the bed his body double was in.

“How do you deal with it?” Leandro finally asked, looking at Lance. Lance huffed out a laugh and looked down at his trembling hands, gripping his blanket. He patted the bed beside him and Leandro hesitantly sat beside him.

“I couldn’t tell you honestly. I’m still dealing with the fact that they re-replaced me,” Lance stuttered, his voice slightly raspy from the tears trapped in his throat. One hand went to his shirt and clutched over where his heart was supposed to be. “I’m still dealing with the fact that I’m not completely human,”

“Oh,” Lance looked at him with sympathy. He must still be in shock about the whole thing, he certainly was for a long time after he found out.

“How is it, that my heart hurts, even when I don’t have one?” Leandro asked, looking up at Lance with red, teary eyes. His eyes widened in surprise and he grabbed Leandro’s hand.

“We may not have hearts like humans, but I’ve learned that they don’t really matter. It’s our emotions that count, our experiences. Who cares that we don’t have a muscle pumping in our chests? We care about the people around us, we want to help, we laugh and cry and that’s all that matters,” Lance said earnestly. Leandro sniffed and nodded his head before wiping his eyes. Lance sighed and moved his head back to face him.

“Look, you don’t have to get used to this all in one day and no one is asking you to. I just want you to be able to choose where your life will head,” Leandro nodded in understanding and looked back at his knees, while Lance laid back in the bed.

“How do you run away?” Leandro asked suddenly. Lance blinked in confusion.

“You want to run away?”

“I don’t know… but maybe if I did; they’d learn to cherish Lance’s memory instead of replicating it,” he explained, looking out the window. “Maybe if one more of us disappeared, they’d finally put him to rest,”

Lance watched Leandro, his shoulders were slumped in defeat but he looked back at Lance with a determined smile on his face.

“Well, where would you go?” Lance asked.

“I don’t know, I don’t really know where I belong,” Leandro mused, getting up to start pacing the room. “I never really got to join the Garrison, so maybe there’s a place there for me. I’d have to constantly be in contact with Veronica though,”

“You could always come with us,” Lance offered with a small smile. For a second, Leandro didn’t show any acknowledgment to the offer but quickly a smile spread across his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit my tumblr at blueplanettrash!


End file.
